Only if you go along with being “rescued” by Param and becoming a pawn and more than likely prisoner of Leomar again. The only planned routes I know of are, Arcadia, Param or Insanity…unless another path was teased on Patreon or Tumblr.
Hence why they stick around on the insanity path, but that one is constant torture to the mc too and has Eli in the unfortunate role of likely still keeping the mc alive against their will.
Hence the need to get rid of them, sadly I don’t think that will ever happen. And of course my mc wants to get rid of the Earthworm thing that was also forced on him too. Earthsworn also isn’t exactly compatible with the mc just less incompatible than the others because work was done to make him universal at the cost of always having slight incompatibility with anyone and its own, independent agenda, where the other phantasma that are usable seem bound to always obey their hosts no matter what. If the mc weren’t already stuck with the damned thing Eli could probably have hosted the Earthsworn themselves.
It also makes mc the only arcana user for whom using it is akin to inflicting torture on themselves, if Eli really wanted to do something they’d help the mc with finding a way to get rid of the cause, instead of just keeping on fighting the symptoms, which really is a path of unending suffering for mc.
Nor is the mc, ample evidence of that in-game. Of course the parasites don’t care.
But then sister probably destroyed mc’s only hope of getting rid of the damned things long ago since she got all the good journals of Thaubal first and all the mc got was the worthless truth serum recipe.
Where did you get this exactly? I haven’t seen any indication that this will be the only way to leave. I also don’t think Leon’s going to be forcing the Mage into their employ anytime again soon. He appears to genuinely regret the fact that he, you know, executed them (in Sunblind, for instance), and I can only assume Ilya, Saine and Eli would all try to tear him a new one if he then tried forcing the Mage back into his employ after what he’s done. All of them would intervene immediately at that. Being forced back into Param if you don’t like Arcadia is also incompatible with the fact that a neutral route exists (or at least, I remember this being said). An anti-Arcadia Mage will be given the option of fighting for Param again, sure, but I genuinely doubt Leon’s gonna be willing or even able of just strong-arming the Mage back into his faction.
The main character is able to healthily host multiple Phantasma as long as those Phantasma are compatible with the Mateus bloodline. None of the ones Thaubal put in them are compatible with the Mage’s bloodline, so those are killing the Mage. Whether they actually want to host any Phantasma at all is a different matter, but as long as the right Phantasma are bound to them the Mage is able to (healthily) host multiple of them, because the Mateus bloodline was incredibly versatile in the range of Phantasma they could host/arcana they could cast, unlike most of the other bloodlines (such as the Stierols), which had only one compatible Phantasma. This is also why Tahlia presumably has multiple Phantasma, yet is not affected by them; they are all compatible with her.
I think it does? I know from the Tumblr (i think?) that there’s a Tahlia-less Arcadia route, anyways, which might entail helping Arcadians out of their oppression.
And as long as they are there they also prevent the mc from comfortable hosting compatible ones.
I think all the compatible ones may have already been gobbled up by either the mysterious backer of the twins or Thalia, except for maybe Isha herself, which is why Thaubal likely couldn’t find a single compatible one for mc.
But since the mc already is saddled with four completely incompatible and one marginally incompatible one (which has its own agenda and can freely disobey mc) even hosting compatible ones will likely be torture for the mc at this point, unless the other five can be gotten rid of, which seems extremely unlikely to ever happen.
My mc wants to get rid of all the parasites infesting him at this point, he isn’t interested in any compatible ones either (unless they are absolutely necessary to keep him alive in which case he’ll keep its use to an absolute minimum) since they’ll either still be torture due to the five other ones or simply come too little too late otherwise since if my mc ever succeeds in getting the current ones out he has no interest in taking on new ones, no matter how compatible they might be. Even Isha herself can take a hike.
Any word on that Tumblr of possibilities of mc ever finding a way of getting rid of the parasites? A Thalia less Arcadia doesn’t hold much appeal for my mc unless it somehow helps him to get rid of his own parasites too. As in all likelihood a Thalia less Arcadia would simply mean serving Yu the same way the mc once did for Leon.
It is probably not a good idea to have the Mage host any more Phantasma right now (compatible or not, but especially incompatible ones). However, Raegusa isn’t marginally incompatible, he is fully compatible with the Mage. He also cannot disobey the Mage or really act on his own (the thing where the Mage was body-controlled into healing the children was Ghisain, Raegusa’s previous wielder and the one kind of carrying Raegusa with him, doing one last hurrah before he passed on, kind of). The contract of a Phantasma essentially stipulates that they have to obey their wielder, so Raegusa is not really capable of disobeying the Mage; Tahlia outright says so if you try to resist during the failed escape attempt. From the code:
Tahlia laughs at the remark, the sound high and resonant as it echoes through the room. "You think you can overpower me. I wonder what gave you such confidence?" she asks, her voice still laced with a mocking lilt. "Is it the Earthsworn, by any chance? Do you think to use him against the homeland he has awaited centuries to protect?"
"He doesn't have a choice," you tell her matter-of-factly. "Phantasma are completely subordinate to their wielders, after a contract has been completed."
Tahlia's lips pull into a mirthless smile. "Indeed. You are quite the cruel child, to force his hand so," she says. "I fear I cannot simply leave him to your mercy."
So Raegusa is not able to disobey the Mage.
Yeah, I agree actually. Not sure how much I’m allowed to say on that tho, so what I will say is that Tahlia at this point has a pretty vested interest in getting rid of the Mage’s extra Phantasma, because it’ll make the Mage a better pawn for her and also because the Phantasma can be put to better use than… killing one of her most powerful units and taking up a lot of the time of her best healer, lol.
So for those who hate Arcadia and are going against them all, how do things go with the group? I imagine F hates your mage. Not sure about the others. I assume the MC gets forced to help them out no matter their feelings on the matter, but I can’t see them trusting the mage at all when they know the mage would knife them in the back the first opportunity they get. I also imagine there’s no romances with people your mage hates, lol.
I code dive, but only for stuff I’m interested in, and screwing over F and Yu holds no interest to me.
I thought whatever made him universal made him mildly incompatible with everybody, or at least every surviving bloodline, since the bloodline he was originally meant for no longer exists? I’ll look extra sharp for it whenever I play again, which is likely when, if ever, this demo is updated again but I think I remember it being mentioned that there was mild dissonance/discomfort for mc when using the Earthworm thing, so I read that as the cost of it being universal is that he is now mildly incompatible with all surviving bloodlines, not fully compatible with the mc.
Could be that I was wrong and the mild dissonance is just because mc is not used to using the Earthworm yet.
In any case the parasites mc wants to get rid of very much include Raegusa, disobedient or not he seems to be singularly useless for the goal of escaping and was also yet another one forced on him. Ghislain wasn’t that much more considerate than Thaubal in the end.
But that will likely still mean mc will never be able to get rid of the parasites or gain that knowledge for themselves. And still be stuck with Nyx in the case of mine (who will still be bad for his health) and the Earthworm.
I tend to play as Arcadia-neutral and haven’t played Anti-Arcadia in a long while, but from what I’ve seen from my first playthrough and forays into the code your relationship from Yu and F and your stance on Arcadia aren’t necessarily the same; it’ll probably be easier for a pro-Arcadia Mage to befriend them, but they don’t automatically hate an Anti-Arcadia Mage, you’d probably have to be actively hateful towards them personally to accomplish that, even if expressing disapproval of Arcadia makes you take some friendship hits. From what I’ve seen it’s mostly just kinda awkward and uncomfy whenever the Mage’s loyalties are brought up. Like, it’s kind of putting a damper on the whole thing, but it’s not necessarily an ‘‘I hate you completely now and you disgust me’’ thing, moreso ‘‘well this is awkward, you really do not like our faction huh’’.
It’s true that Raegusa’s original bloodline was killed so Raegusa was killed with them, and I don’t know if this is exactly right because by God is it so complicated and I haven’t read this part in a while so please correct me if I’m wrong on the way it happened, but Ghisain basically decided to embody him for a while to save his powers (or something? idk exactly how it worked) and find a new host.
He found Augur, an invading knight who was being attacked/confronted by his squad after sparing an Arcadian child, and then basically put himself + Raegusa’s powers into him because it was the only way for Augur to save himself.
When Augur got old, he did some kind of suicide ritual that unbound the Phantasma, I think. I’m pretty sure that the Mage then touching the sarcophagus/coffin/whatever it was that Augur was buried in then caused a sort of bloodline reset and simultaneous binding of Raegusa to the Mage, meaning that Raegusa is no longer bound to Ghisain or Augur’s bloodline/whatever he was bound to before, but now to the Mage’s, and fully compatible with them through loophole. Again, not sure about the first part/how it happened so correct me if I’m wrong, but I am sure that Raegusa is now bound & compatible with the Mage’s bloodline instead of his original one.
Main Mc (run to be finalized):
Name: Alexei of House Osowiec
Codename: Koschei
Specialty: Necromancy/Spiritism
First Phantasma: Nyx
Love Interest: Illya
Deformity: Scar
Traits (book 1): Noble, Charming, Optimistic, Emotional
Traits (Book 2): Pragmatic, Reserved, Optimistic, Emotional
So, a half flip on those. Reserved is subject to change as he gets to know his new comrades.
Theme song (yes): The Attack of the Dead Men by Sabaton
Goals:
Revenge
Alexei has always been a friendly sort but not exactly the most forgiving. One of your best friends setting you on fire is cause for a grudge. Both Leone and the nobility of Param will pay for their actions.
Reestablish Arcadia
Alexei was always an advocate for Arcadian rights, even before he discovered his heritage, and had long held interest in the old magics lost with their nation’s downfall. He believed the Church’s restriction and suppression of certain arts was counterproductive, and only served to prevent countless advancements in magical science that could benefit humanity immensely. With his recruitment (as dubious as it was) into the Arcadian Remnants, he now believes that the overthrow of the current monarchs and establishing a new nation is the best way foward. He hopes to build a resurgent Arcadian nation and rediscover the lost wonders of his ancestors for the good of the people.
Reunite with his old companions
Illya and Saine still mean a great deal to him, and he longs to reunite with them now that he’s been given a second chance at life. Saine was like a brother to him, and he’d been in love with Illya for quite some time. If there’s one thing he dislikes about his new life, it’s the need to pretend he’s still dead. In addition, Illya and Saine were also supporters of civil rights for the Arcadians and are both figures of political import. If they can reach an agreement, it could benefit the cause.
Alter the course of the plan
He has many objections to the current plan for resurrecting Arcadia. Leone can go, but he won’t allow any harm to come to Saine. He also objects to Thalia’s attitude towards the non-Arcadians. He has no hatred towards the Parami people nor Silantar and believes in equality. Thalia’s supremacist attitudes do not bode well for how they will be treated in the new regime. He hopes he can convince her of his perspective, but force may be required. Fortunately, his other comrades don’t seem to share this prejudice to the same extent and should be easier to win over. Here’s hoping.
Hi! Please imagine me slowly slithering towards you on the floor and placing these silly little playlists on some creepy forest alter. They are respectively for the Mage, Eli and F (but I might make some for the rest of the cast if wanted ^^)
F’s 47% with me, weirdly enough for how much we disagree with each other. MC can be opposed to Tahlia’s plans and shit-talk every mission for being violent/immoral/murderous/whatever reason there is to dislike this particular mission but have a pretty okay to actively flirtatious relationship with Y and F if they don’t specifically go out of their way to be an asshole to them which on my playthroughs, I haven’t.
It does mean more arguments during every mission briefing though and those tend to boil down to the following:
MC: “Murder is bad,”
F: “How dare you say murder is bad?? Stop questioning the ashai!”
Y: “Look, I agree that murder is bad but we’re going to do it anyway,”
Then they do the mission exactly the same as if MC had said nothing.
You know what bothers me about the story is how the MC not afraid of fire. If i got burned to death i would probably start taking cold showers and avoid campfire and maybe flinch at fire spells.
That’s good, at least. I was worried it was just antagonistic the whole time, with the MC auto-ing into being a jerk to them if they were anti-Arcadia.
Interesting. I’m glad my mage isn’t anti-Arcadia. I think I’d end up frustrated if my mage hated Arcadia and that was the result.
I’ve thought about playing a mage that hated everyone in Arcadia and wanted to run away back to Param, but I just can’t wrap my head around the mentality enough to RP it. And I don’t want to play the insane-o route.
Yes!! I’ve had that same thought. And my mage has a high thaum score. I think that’s one reason why she’s using the non-ercei magic–better than using fire and having PTSD flashbacks.
I head canon a lot in this game, but that’s nothing new for me.
Honestly? My mage takes every opportunity to disaparage the Arcadian cause, complain about Tahlia, affirm her loyalty to Leon, and moan about how much she despises the hostage situation.
But right now her relationship score with F hovers at around 65.
I’m not entirely sure how it happened. Whether it’s due to my MC maintaining civility with F and never making it personal, the strength of her abilities and being reliable in battle, or a combination of the above.
Whatever the case, at one point there is a funny scene when Yu requests that MC check in on F where it’s lampshaded：
Yusuha looks surprised by your question, as if he’d thought the answer should be obvious. “I would have you go after her.”
. . .
“Me, of all people? She hates my guts!”
Yusuha blinks owlishly. “She doesn’t. She really, really doesn’t.”
Up until that point, I don’t think either me or my MC had realized how much Flyss had grown on us.
My mage DID try to run away lol. Obviously unsuccessful, because of Tahlia.
For now, she plays as much of a role in ‘harm reduction’ as possible. My MC reasons that even more innocent lives would be endangered if another were in her place. And really that’s all she can do while being stuck in this situation.
And of course my mc wants to get rid of the Earthworm thing that was also forced on him too. Earthsworn also isn’t exactly compatible with the mc just less incompatible than the others because work was done to make him universal at the cost of always having slight incompatibility with anyone and its own, independent agenda, where the other phantasma that are usable seem bound to always obey their hosts no matter what. If the mc weren’t already stuck with the damned thing Eli could probably have hosted the Earthsworn themselves.
